TEXAS SHEET CAKE

This is a great cake.  It is hard to mess up, bakes in only 25 minutes when you bake it in a cookie sheet and ALWAYS goes like hot cakes at a gathering.

Texas Sheet Cake
Mix in a bowl & set aside:

• 2     C. sugar
• 2     C. flour
• 1/4   t. salt
• 1      t. soda

Mix in a pan and bring to a gentle boil.  Then remove from burner:

• 1     C. margarine ( I use butter since to be soy free)
• 1/4  C. cocoa powder
• 1     C. water

Add buttermilk to pan & mix.  Pour a little hot mixture into beaten eggs to temper while stirring and then add all to pan while mixing.  Add vanilla & mix.

• 1/2   C. buttermilk
• 2           eggs
• 1      t.  vanilla

Add the liquids to the dry ingredients all at once. Mix and pour into a well sprayed cookie sheet or 13" X 9".  If you will want to turn the cake out of pan, be sure to also flour the pan.

13" X 9" pan  ----- bake 45 minutes   at     325 degrees
Cookie sheet  -----bake 25 minutes    at     325 degrees

Five minutes before the cake is done, start your topping.  I call this Candy Frosting.  It keeps well in your fridge if you want to make a big ole' batch for leftovers for later  ;-}


Topping   (This is SO good on brownies, that pantry recipe is HERE)


1/2     C.  margarine (or butter)
6        T.  milk
1/4     C.  cocoa powder
1        lb.  powdered sugar
1        C.  chopped nuts

Mix the margarine, milk, cocoa powder in a sauce pan and bring to a boil.  Remove from the burner and quickly stir in the powdered sugar and nuts.   If you have a kid in braces or one that is just weird and doesn't like nuts, you can stir in sugar, frost half the cake as soon as it comes out of the oven.  Quickly stir nuts in last half of the topping and spread it on the second half!

I grew up on  farm with a pecan orchard and LOVE, LOVE nuts, so we go the rounds around here.  But since nuts are iffy for food allergies, tastes and just plain old expensive, I usually fore go the nuts when making this for a group I'm not sure about other's needs.

I realized that the cherry pie filling was a little lumpy, I scraped it back off and blended it up with some neat little stuff I have called "Instant Clear Gel".  It comes from Walton Feed (waltonfeed.com)  Great stuff, you beat it into the mixture and it thickens after a few minutes without cooking.








Here is the first layer with the filling, looks kind of gory, doesn't it?  I decided it wasn't blood, it was lava, you know like in the dinosaur days, got it?  By this time, I knew I had to pull my oldest daughter's chain a bit, her life just wasn't complicated enough  ;-] 

So we scattered the little dinos all over the cake to surprise everyone when it was cut . . . Big Ole' Hit with all those kids!

I forgot to flour the pan of the second layer, so we had a little problem turning it out . .  OK, it wasn't so little, but could've been worse.  I figured it was a good place to put the little dinosaur that the "digger" (back hoe) is digging up.  Roll with the punches I always say, way too often.

So here is the hill.  It is sugar cookie dough with
some mini chocolate chips in it.  I thought it might make good rocks . . . didn't.  It did make good dirt later however, so I'll take that.

I made the hill by pressing the dough into a corelle cereal bowl (grease it!), baking it in the oven between the two bowls.  I finally had to take the top bowl off and mash the center down to make it hold a good shape.  I trimmed it on one edge with a small sharp knife to make it tip down.

Sarah, my youngest daughter, and I were still puzzling on how to make good rocks when I remembered that I had a bunch of this stuff still.  They worked so well . . .  we were so excited on how cute they turned out!

We melted them in a double boiler to give us more time to work the candy while adding the flavor and color.  By scooping the candy off the top of the blog, it wasn't too hot to handle and for the rocks.  We sprinkled them with cocoa powder to make them look more craggy.








Here is a fuzzy, but closer look at the

"rocks" and "dirt".  This was a really fun
project for Nanny & Aunt Sassy!  We're glad that we got to do it.

LET'S TALK ABOUT COCOA 


Not all cocoa is created equally.

There is just the regular powder that Hershey makes.  Most recipes are made out of this type of cocoa, unless it states otherwise.

I love to use Dutch Cocoa when I can find it.  The last place I found it was at a Sprouts near where I live.  It has a little richer, nicer flavor without being over powering.

Last Christmas I found a Hershey product called, "Special Dark" . . .  they were not kidding!  This cake was made out of it and it was so stinking rich, I could only eat a couple of bites . .  and it had nothing to do with the cherry filling . .  trust me.

WARNING:  This will sound redundant to some of you, but  . . . .  this is not the stuff like "Nestle's Quick" that you make chocolate milk out of!  I have known of that being done more than once!  Makes pretty wimpy chocolate baked goods.

WISHING ALL A HAPPY AND JOYFUL EASTER!

I hope all of us can enjoy this day with friends and family as we remember the "reason for this season":  The resurrection of our Savior and for his atoning sacrifice, enabling us to return to our Heavenly Father .

Texas Sheet Cake

I don't think I have actually put this recipe on here.  It is my secret weapon when it comes to making cakes.  This was my four-year old grand son's birthday cake yesterday.  It has many surprises all through it . .  much to the kid's delight and my daughter's frustration when she was trying to cut it for serving.


This is a very busy weekend, so I may not get this on for a couple of days, but I will show all the steps for the hill, rocks, etc.  It was so fun and was all made with what was on hand and can be stored . . . best kind!

ORANGE CHICKEN . . . . . PANTRY STYLE . . . MAKE-A-MIX . . . .FINALLY!

First a Disclaimer . . . AKA . . . . . a lame excuse?  I have been side tracked so many times, by so many things &  so many little people.   Throw in a little eye surgery (I'll spare you the pic of that, my granddaughter told me it was disgusting!) and time has just evaporated. 


I am going through the old posts and trying to finish the follow-ups where promised, "pantry-fy"  & translate into make-a-mix where promised and just get it all pulled together again & get back on track.  So here is the first one!


First---Refer back to the original Orange Chicken HERE
Next---Find the pictures I put on last week or at least recently HERE
FINALLY---  ORANGE CHICKEN, PANTRY STYLE:


2 lbs. chopped chicken . .  or pork will work (like I used tonight . . .  oops, caught me?!?)


ORANGE SAUCE
1 teaspoon            Ginger, ground
2 teaspoons          Garlic powder (I prefer granulated)
1 teaspoon            Crushed red chile flakes (recipe calls for red ceyenne pepper, only for masochists, I'd say)
4 tablespoons       Minced onion, dried (soak in hot tap water for a few minutes before adding)
1/2 cup                   Sugar

1-2 tablespoons    Orange zest, dried


3 tablespoons       Soy sauce

3 tablespoons       Water (OK confession time, I have been caught using orange juice concentrate . . . love that extra fruity flavor)

1/2 cup                 White Vinegar ( rice vinegar will also work or sometimes I         use apple cider vinegar . . .adds to that extra fruity flavor that I love!)

Mix the liquid ingredients in sauce pan, add the dry ingredients.  Mix and bring to a gentle boil.  Let it simmer for hm-m-m-m-m let's say five minutes.

While that is simmering, stir fry the chopped meat in your heavy skillet or wok (some day I will find mine again).  When the meat is nice and brown, thicken the sauce with 1 tablespoon corn starch dissolved in 1/2 cup water.  Add to the sauce, cook until thick.  Add to the meat in skillet and stir until it is well coated, heated through and nice and sticky.

If you forgot to put the rice on to steam before you started (yes, I forgot tonight)  get out those ramen noodles quick and serve on top of those, oh, and what the heqq, cook 'em first.


Just in case you didn't notice, I didn't coat and deep fry the meat tonight.  I sautee'd in about 1 T. peanut oil and 1 t. toasted sesame seed oil. Much lower in fat, fewer calories and it reheats much better than the coated meat does. 

This sauce freezes beautifully for future use. 


If you want quick yummy meals, coat the meat and freeze in ziplock bags after squeezing the extra air out.  Make some minute rice or ramen noodles while you thaw and heat it up . . . a great 5-minute meal or snack!




MAKE-A-MIX    (For ten batches of Orange Sauce)


 Here are the portions to Make-A-Mix of the dry seasons, etc. if you would like to shorten the prep time in the future.

3 1/2 Tablespoons      Ginger, ground
1/3  cup                       Garlic powder
1 1/2 Tablespoon        Red chile flakes
3 1/4 cups                    Minced onion, dried
6 1/4 cups                   Sugar
8 Tablespoons            Orange zest, dried

Add 1 1/2 cups Mix to liquids:

3 T.                             Soy sauce
1/2 cup                        Water (increased since onions will not be rehydrated before hand)
1/2 cup                        White vinegar

Mix the ingredients well.  To make a batch of Orange Sauce, scoop a scant 1 1/2 cups of mix.  Boil gently in liquids for about five minutes.  Thicken with 1 T. corn starch dissolved in 1/3 cup water.

LEMONS, LEMONS EVERYWHERE

We have a rather ambitious lemon tree that drowns me every year.  No, I'm not complaining, I LOVE lemon everything.  

This year black and yellow seems to be very popular for weddings, so they have done double duty by making some great additions to the wedding season and now they ALL need to be squeezed, juiced, frozen, bottled and zested all at once.

Today, I also hit the jackpot.  I found a good Lemonade recipe.  I seem to always make it "OK" but never quite the right ratio and by the time I get it just right, I have downed half of it and lost track how much of each ingredient (you know, all three), that I have put into it.  This sounds pretty lame, but this has been my Achilles heel.  So I looked on recipezaar.com and found this one.

Gabriel said that it was just right, but a little tart (where did a five year old get tart?) even though he just ate a lollipop.  So bring on summer, I'm ready now!

Lemonade Recipe #23038      2 quarts

SERVES 8  unless you're normal and it's a hot summer day)

1 1/2 cups fresh squeezed lemon juice
7 cups ice cold water

• 1 cup granulated sugar

1. Combine the first three ingredients and stir until sugar is dissolved, add ice and lemon slices then serve.

Orange Chicken . . . . With My "Improvements" !

I had my favorite kitchen helper, well maybe not my favorite helper, but he is my favorite person (my "Old Feller"), make the fresh orange zest. The bottle of dried zest says that 1 teaspoon equals 1 teaspoon of fresh. I haven't found that in making my own, 1 Tablespoon fresh = 1 teaspoon when I have dried it.

Like the mess when you deep fat fry these babies? I didn't crop the picture to show you another reason that I prefer the sauteed method . . . besides way less fattening! it got way worse by the time I was done.

Here the chicken is, fried all crispy. "Old Feller" and I had a hard time staying out of these while I was getting them all fried and then making the sauce. The coating fries up very light and fluffy, just as it is. If you put more seasonings in the dip, it wouldreally be yummy just as it is!

Here is the finished product! It was as tasty as it looks.

I know, this doesn't have all the changes I made, but I wanted to get this much on. I am going to make the other style, non-fried style, in a few minutes, so I will take more pictures at the same time.

Thinking Healthy as You Prepare . . .

I signed up for SparkPeople on the internet a long time ago because it seemed to have a lot of good advise that were reasonable and do-able. I have found some great guide lines for helping me lose and then hold my weight. Isn't it great what we can find, at no cost?

Whenever I label a post, "Better for Your Health", I have defatted and probably lowered the carbs & salt in it. I have been shocked at what the food industry has created as they throw instant food type products at us. Water retention & diabetes have taught me a lot! The same eating principles are good for everyone, and could actually help others from developing these health conditions, which are terrible common in today's world.

This morning, while checking out some of the emails from SparkPeople, I found the website showing Chef Meg's videos where she is demonstrating ways to make healthier versions of some pretty yummy foods. Check it out HERE. I cruised through a few of them. They sound delicious, many can be used as leftovers, a must in my house, and pretty simple to make . . . . without too much invested time.

Sparkpeople also is publishing some top tips for losing weight and improving health, successfully. By successfully, I mean, permanently. You can find the first nine tips HERE.

Keeping this in mind, I will repost the Orange Chicken I made last night.